Cooking, Cont'd

I was going to post another recipe on Friday, but it was after 5 and I needed to go home and cook dinner for some friends. And today I don't have this recipe with me, so I'm going to wing it a little bit. I'll come back later and doublecheck the accuracy of what I write.


Southwest Corn Hash
Source: The Vegetable Dishes I Can't Live Without by Mollie Katzen

Notes
This cookbook is great because everything is super easy and fast to throw together, yet extremely flavorful. The dishes are mostly sides and so far I've been very happy with almost everything I've made from it. This particular dish is great for cooking in-season in the spring and summer and it was really, really yummy.

Ingredients
2 ears fresh corn, scraped off ears (you could probably use about 2 cups frozen)
1 zucchini, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1 jalapeno, de-seeded and minced
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
A couple of scallions, minced
Olive oil

Procedure
Heat up olive oil in a large pan at medium heat. Add red pepper and onion. When they begin to soften, add jalapeno, garlic, and corn. Saute for five minutes. Add salt and pepper and scallions, and turn heat down to low till you serve.

When this was ready I added cilantro and grated monterey jack cheese, and I would definitely do that again. I served the hash on a bed of romaine lettuce, topped with nutritional yeast tofu (recipe below).


Nutritional Yeast Tofu
Source: Self

Notes
When I make up my own recipes I never really measure anything. Sorry.

Ingredients
1 slab firm tofu (preferably one that you've frozen but which has defrosted in the fridge; this is to keep the tofu holding together nicely), cut across the short side into slices 1/4" thick
About 1/2 cup almond or soy milk
A couple tablespoons nutritional yeast
A couple of teaspoons cornstarch
A couple of tablespoons flour
Salt (1/8 teaspoon? 1/4? I don't know)
Oil for pan

In one bowl, combine almond or soy milk and cornstarch, whisking to combine. In another bowl, combine flour, nutritional yeast, and salt. Heat oil in large nonstick pan. When the oil is hot but not before -- this is very important -- you'll start adding the tofu. First take each piece of tofu and dip it in the milk (first whisking to re-suspend the cornstarch), then dip it in the nutritional yeast. Make sure each piece is coated thoroughly on all sides, then drop it in the oil. Repeat for rest of tofu. Fry it up on both sides. Pat excess oil off and eat it on top of the hash above or with your breakfast or whatever you feel like.

Cooking

Okay, I'm sorry again I haven't written anything. In the gap, I've done some more vegetable gardening, resurrected some seemingly dead plants, went to the Kanapaha Spring Festival with Sally, went to the Spring Arts Festival with Robin, and took photos of none of it. Sometimes I just want to experience my life instead of blogging about it.

To be honest, I have very mixed feelings about blogging. Unlike many people in my approximate age group, there are actually many things about my life that I like to be private. Plus, I just don't know how many things I do are that interesting to other people. Don't get me wrong -- I'm an avid blog reader and consider myself to be an extremely curious (you might call me nosy) person. But I'm not always sure I want to be on the other end of that spotlight.

But every week or two I feel ok about blogging. Sometimes I enjoy the exercise of examining my daily life. Or whatever.

Anyway:

In the summer I do not like to cook, and consequently end up eating a lot of salad. This is probably mostly because I live without A/C and the heat diminishes my appetite. So in the past few weeks I've been milking the tolerable temperatures for all they're worth. Here are recipes for two tasty meals I recently made.

Red Coconut Curry
Source: Self

Notes
I doubt coconut milk is real low-fat (sarcasm), but it sure is delicious and coconut is supposed to be some kind of miracle food, so who cares? Live it up. This dish takes about 20 min. tops and is delectable. You can also add potatoes or corn or anything else you feel like.

Ingredients
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 lb-ish collard greens, rinsed and chopped
2 carrots, diced
1/2 lb-ish tempeh*, cubed
Red curry paste, to taste
1 can coconut milk
Salt to taste
Some rice (basmati or jasmine)

Procedure
Heat up some coconut/olive/whatever oil in a pan over medium heat. Throw in the tempeh and saute it until it's brown. Then add the collards, red pepper, and carrots. Cook for five or so minutes. The greens will start turning bright green. Add salt.


Turn heat down a little bit and add coconut milk and curry. I used more than a tablespoon of curry, because I like some heat.



Stir till blended, then let it warm up slowly. Serve over rice.

*We Gainesvillans are lucky enough to have a local tempeh maker, Jose, who sells his tempeh in frozen cubes that have been marinated in soy sauce and stuff but you can use regular tempeh plain and cubed, or marinate it yourself.

I have to run but will write more about cooking and maybe other stuff later this weekend.

Vegetable Gardening!

I have not really grown vegetables in the past year or so. Well, I've sort of tried ... but only in containers ... and then I don't water enough, and the plants are too far away from my hose ... it's just too complicated to grow things in containers.

I've been wanting to grow some veggies in the ground, but I rent, and don't want to tear up all the grass, and I also don't think my landlady would like it. Plus it's kind of expensive to build beds and stuff. (Excuse excuse excuse excuse is what Tom would say but we can't all have neon-green thumbs. Hmph.)

Anyway, I was explaining all this to Emily (my boss), who told me I should just garden with her this spring. Eureka! Emily lives on a farm and has beds already built. We both have plenty of seeds, and gardening is more fun with someone else (in my opinion).

So about a week ago I drove out to Wacahoota Road and weeded and sweated and planted seeds. Here's what we're growing (we tend to over-do things when we get together):

Tomato seedlings in a grow box


Tomatoes from seed


Hot peppers and marigolds


Zinnias and basil


Eventually we will plant all those seedlings in Em's raised beds. These are the two we weeded that weekend.


We also planted some seeds directly in the raised beds: okra, four different kinds of sunflowers (I love sunflowers!), and some other stuff.


We are also going to buy some veggie and herb seedlings this week and plant some more stuff in Em's rows.

Our garden is going to be awesome!!!

My Favorite Recipe

I love quinoa. This ancient Latin American grain (pronounced keen-wah) is an utterly delicious complete protein. If you add a few other things, it's like the perfect meal eaten warm or cool, by itself or as a side dish. I usually make this on the weekend and eat it all week as a snack or for lunch.

Ingredients
2 cups quinoa
3 radishes, diced
1/3 can chickpeas (or if you use dried chickpeas, around 1/3 cup reconstituted chickpeas)
1/3-1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 cup toasted walnut pieces
1/4 cup feta, diced/crumbled
1/3 lb cubed tofu, sauted
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
2-3 green onions, minced
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup currants
2-4 Tbs. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
Toast the quinoa at medium heat in a pan with about 1/4 cup water, making sure all the quinoa is moistened -- there should be no excess water. Stir frequently until quinoa browns (do not burn) and pops like popcorn. I think this has something to do with a natural pesticide coating the quinoa has, but all I really know is that toasting it before cooking it makes it nuttier tasting.

Then add 3 1/2 to 4 cups of water and after it boils, turn the pot down to simmer with a lid on for 10-20 minutes. (My stove is wonky, so I can't be precise about this.) Keep an eye on it to make sure all the water evaporates and the quinoa gets softish but not all mushy. It's a fine line sometimes. The quinoa should be fluffy.

Then add some olive oil and salt and pepper while it cools, stirring a bit to release some of the heat. When it's cooled off some, add all the veggies and other stuff. Between the quinoa, feta, walnuts, and chickpeas, it's a mega-proteiny dish. I usually eat it on a bed of chopped romaine lettuce, sometimes topped with a black bean-jalapeno dip. But any way you eat it, it will simultaneously fill you up and gives you tons of energy (no after-meal nap required).

You can vary the ingredients and their amounts however you want -- I just happen to like a lot of different flavors in my meals. For example, you can try subbing parsley for the cilantro or chopped figs for the currants. (I try to have one sweet thing in my quinoa to offset all the savory flavors.)

This dish will keep for up to a week, although the chickpeas and feta shorten its lifespan by a few days.

Farmer's Markets

Farmer's markets are among my favorite things. Local produce, giving money to growers, vegetables that are still warm from the sun and smell like soil -- all good. Plus you can find many more varieties of veggies than are ever available in the store.


Last weekend I went to one of the five local farmer's markets we have in Gainesville. This one is the largest, I think, and is out on 441 by the highway patrol station. I've been meaning to go for a few years, since I moved back to town from California (which has the BEST farmer's markets), but just hadn't gotten around to waking up early on Saturday morning and heading out there.

I've heard the 441 farmer's market can be very large and lively, but apparently in the winter it is somewhat smaller and subdued. There were still many, many varieties of greens and a few other vegetables for sale.

I bought some gorgeous kale (below), humongous green onions, spicy arugula, and mushrooms. Almost every item cost about a dollar!

The next day, I went to Micanopy to wander the antique shops. At that farm store I love, Mosswood Farms, there was a small farmer's market happening. I think it's new. Here's something I learned: Brussels sprouts grow on trees! No, not really, but that's what it looked like. I really had never seen a Brussels sprout plant before. That was pretty cool.


I take the worst digital pictures.

Farmer's Market

Gainesville has a farmer's market every Wednesday in the downtown plaza from around 4 to 7. There's lots of fresh, organic, local produce; live music; jewelry; and hacky sack-playing. I often intend to go after work, but rarely make it for several reasons, most of which have to do with a word that starts with the letters "N-A-P."


Kim and I carpooled to work yesterday, and decided to stop by the market on our way home. I bought some delicious-smelling basil and beautiful kale for a dollar! The latter is in the bottom of this photo.


I'm going to make green lasagna with both the kale and the basil.

Find out where farmer's markets are in your area and where to buy other locally produced food here: http://www.localharvest.org/.

Winter Vegetables

Another runt-filled season in my veggie garden. I keep waiting for things to get bigger, but they just refuse.

One of these days I am going to get some more media, toss this old media that I don't think is draining well, and plant some new seeds. Maybe this weekend!

Here's my runt lettuce.


Runt kale.


Runt radishes.


Runt corn that preferred my compost pile.


It's the end of the season, so I guess I should just have a runt harvest and be done with it.

More about Food

As I've mentioned before, I love grocery shopping. Because of visiting family and a lack of cash flow, I didn't go grocery shopping for a couple of weeks. When I finally went, last Saturday, I went a little overboard.


I'm at the critical point between having a lot of food I need to cook and having too much cooked food. So I use some produce, but then I have nowhere to put the tupperware with the leftovers. It's a hard life.

What's Growing around My House, Pt. 3

In one of my planters, I took out the bits of remaining plant matter that clearly isn't salvageable and put these new Easter lily bulbs in (Emily got them for us from work). We'll see if they adapt to my "low-key" gardening style!


Hanging strawberries: I don't know why I bother--the dang birds nibble little bits out of each strawberry before I get to it. But every now and again I get an unsullied one. They're not as sweet as last year.


Pulled a crop of radishes the other day. I cut both the radishes themselves and the greens up for a delicious salad I've been eating all week. They're spicier than store-bought radishes--tasty.

What's Growing around My House, Pt. 2

When I moved into my house a couple of months ago, I started a compost pile. Since then I keep waiting for something I discard to sprout, 'cuz when the compost sprouts, I get free plants.

It's easier--and cheaper--to try to grow new things this way, rather than go to the store and pick some plants out. At the old house, I got all kinds of seedlings, some more successful than others. But I've been sorely disappointed at the new house, as my compost has remained singularly barren.

So I watered the compost, and I added more leaves, and I stirred it up, and I waited patiently. Finally, the other day I went to dump my food scraps and voila! Some seedlings had emerged. But I didn't recognize what they were. My compost had never sprouted such plants before!

I carefully dug out one of the plants and looked at its origins. A kernel of corn! Exciting. One of these days I may pull up all of these seedlings and put them in pots. Until then, I just admire them as I dump my scraps.


One of my uncles gave me this ivy plant over the holidays. He had a bunch of them hanging from the pergola on his patio in Ft. Myers. There was some story about some teachers he bought them for...I don't know. Anyway, he had a bunch and offered me one. I loaded the thing--it has vines at least six feet long--into my hatchback and went to St. Pete for a few days. When I drove home, the cooking I had subjected it to in the hatch didn't seem to have affected it.

So naturally I concluded the thing it was invincible (I do test my plants awfully, I know), so I brought the ivy into my bedroom. I was super stoked because it's my first bedroom plant. Imagine--a plant in your bedroom! I never had imagined that, so when it finally occurred to me it blew my mind. I stared at it lovingly every day.

The only problem is that my bedroom is like a cave. It's some shade of dark 24/7 and always kind of cool. I put the plant up and forgot about it for a couple of weeks. Then I started noticing it was shedding a lot of brown leaves. I took it down and realized that the wall-facing side was dying. So I put it in the ICU, i.e., the backyard. I've been leaving it there to soak up some sun and rain, and hopefully it will pull through.

I do like having a bedroom plant. Maybe when I bring it back in, I'll rotate it more frequently so all the sides can suffer equally. "Nobody puts Baby in the corner!"


My Florida violets are thriving, although one much more visibly so than the other--don't ask me why, since they get the same amount of light and water. This native plant is sadly considered a weed in most people's landscapes. But I love it--my favorite plants seem to be considered weeds by most people--and am looking forward to the delicate blooms in later spring.

More Winter Veggies

I will admit that I have doubts about whether I will actually get some vegetables this winter. I may have planted seeds too late, I don't really know if the media is tapped out, and I'm not totally sure the sprouts're getting enough light.

BUT. It never fails to thrill me when seeds sprout.

Radishes:


No idea what this is. Spinach?

Next Crop of Veggies

I finally planted some more veggie seeds this weekend.

First I pulled up two more radishes and considered that the end of my first crop of seeds. Those buckets have been sitting out for about a year, so the soil was pretty compressed and weeds were starting to thrive. That's why I think the other seeds I planted a couple of months ago--besides the radishes, which, as Tom is constantly reminding me, are extremely easy to grow--haven't been thriving. (I also haven't been that dilligent about making sure the seedlings were getting enough sun.)


Before I planted, I pulled out the stunted vegetables and large weeds and put them in the compost. I then emptied all the containers of their media into a large bucket and stirred it up with a shovel to aerate it. I should have had the media tested at the county Extension office to see if it's pH-balanced and what nutrients it might need, but I wanted to go ahead and plant. I'm guessing that there're still enough nutrients in the media (a mixture of perlite, peat moss, and lime) to have at least one more season of veggies. (And I am using a small amount of slow-release fertilizer.) If these don't thrive, I'll start over with new media for spring gardening.

I planted one container each of radishes, carrots, spinach, red-leaf lettuce, kale, onions, green onions, celery, broccoli, and a salad mix:


One of these days maybe I will bring home the other containers at work and plant them, too.

My neighbor brought home some plants last week. She says they're garlic and some sort of berry (it has thorns that poked me). She transplanted them into some of my pots and I added a little slow-release fertilizer. I'm not sure if they'll be ok. They seemed a little wilty.


Finally, I watered everything and moved all the containers into the sun. It was a good weekend for gardening--absolutely gorgeous and not too hot. It's weird to be grateful for that in mid-December. This has got to be the warmest December on record.

Strawberries and Radishes

Despite my garden slacking, I am managing a tiny, tiny harvest. From my winter garden, every few days I get a strawberry, if the squirrels don't get to it first. Here's a strawberry flower:


And every few days I get a radish:

Homegrown radishes are spicier and fresher-tasting than store-bought ones. And I like putting the greens in a salad. They're kind of spicy and fuzzy--too bitter to eat alone, but mixed with spinach/mixed baby greens and cilantro, just right.

The winter gardening season ain't over yet (Tom says it ends in February), so if I can find some daylight time soon I'm going to plant some more seeds (lettuce, radish, broccoli, collards, onion, and carrots, et al).

I just have to do a few small things first. I decided that the problem with the vegetables I already planted (most of them died off when they became small plants) is that the soil in the containers is too compacted. It's been in there for over a year, after all.

So I'm going to gather the pots from work and bring them home (still haven't done that...), empty them several at a time into a giant bucket thingy, stir them up with a shovel, and put them back into containers. That'll aerate the media and also get rid of some of the weeds that have been colonizing the containers.

Before I do that I will start some more seeds in small containers. And not leave them under the house gutter.

Fresh Veggies

Today Emily (a.k.a. "Wacahoota") brought some of her homegrown vegetables in to share with the office. Yum!

I got some mustard greens:

I am going to make some tempeh, marinated in tamari, garlic, and maple syrup, and steam the mustards. Then I can eat them with what I made last night: basmati rice and black beans with corn, TVP, green onions, olive oil, green pepper, garlic, a couple of dried chili peppers, and carrots. I'm already excited!

I also got some lettuce:


I haven't decided what I am going to make with this. Probably some kind of hummus-muenster sandwich with vegannaise and dijon mustard on toasted bread. Mmmm.

New House

I haven't written in a while because I've been in the throes of finding a new place to live. This week I'm moving, and next week I will be out of town. So this post will be an oasis in the desert of my temporarily abandoned blog. (Which will make certain of my colleagues, who look at blogging as a competitive sport, very happy. Ahem.)

My new place is a one-bedroom in a duplex. There's a pretty substantial yard with a large camellia bush and a gigantic Southern magnolia. The yard gets a lot more sun than my current place, so growing vegetables will be much easier.

And that means I can finally bring home those pots that have been sitting in the yard at work for about nine months...sorry, everybody. I grew my first veggies at work last year in five-gallon pots (with mixed results). And the pots have been sitting out by the weird blue water pump thing since after all the plants died. I keep meaning to bring them home, but, you know--it rains, or I have somewhere I need to be, or I just got my car cleaned...

As I've mentioned before, I planted some fall vegetable seeds a few weeks ago, but have been kind of neglecting them with all this other stuff going on (although I did finally transplant them to larger pots). And I need to plant more seeds. So that's on the agenda for when I get back from vacation.

The new place needs a compost heap. I also need to figure out the best place in the landscape for all of my plants, since some of them like more sun than others--but if they get too scattered, I will never get around to watering them. Sometimes it really seems that my life is just a struggle between desire and laziness. (Not very Buddhist of me, I know.) We will see which wins this week.

After (and Before) the Rain

It has been raining nearly non-stop for the past week or two. We need the rain after an unusually dry summer--water tables and rivers are low, and of course landscape plants have been suffering.

When there was a brief break in the monsoon today, I went outside to take stock of my poor neglected plants in preparation for fall gardening. I emptied container saucers so the plants wouldn't be in standing water and took some photos while I was at it. Then it rained again.

My roommate has a thing for aloe and spider plants. Here's a shot of the patio behind the back porch. In the middle you can see the two avocado plants she pulled from the compost a few weeks ago.


Here's a close-up of one of them. I am so excited that we might have avocados, if we bring the plants into the house or garage during cold snaps.


I was a little worried about the vegetable seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago. I haven't really checked on them, haven't transplanted them yet, and uh...I left them right under the edge of the house--where all the rain pours off from the roof. I had a good reason for putting them there, but I can't remember what it was now.

When I went to look at them today, I was afraid they'd been washed away. But most of them were actually doing well! (Two of the pots, unbeknownst to me, couldn't drain, so those seeds drowned. Sorry, seeds.) I planted two kinds of lettuce, spinach, kale, broccoli, onions, and radishes. But I can't remember which are which, so I'll just have to see what happens when things get bigger. I still haven't transplanted them into containers--didn't have time this weekend.


Here are two banana plants we've been raising since they were wee little babies. Kate transplanted them a couple of months ago and they exploded since then. These are two more tropical plants, like the avocados, that will be fine if we take care of them when it gets cold. Container gardening makes so much sense for tropical plants in North Florida.

There are lots of other reasons to garden in containers. I can put plants inside or on the porch. I can move them when they need more (or less) light. I don't have to worry about weeding or nematodes. I can experiment with growing more high-maintenance plants without having to do too much. And I can avoid having a planned landscape, which is helpful since I don't like commitment, I rent, and (most importantly) my roommate/landlord likes having grass.

I mostly have natives and herbs in pots. The bulk of my container garden is in the backyard on some shelves I built out of stair risers and closet shelves.


This is a native fern. Just looking at it makes me happy. It's very soft.


One of my salvias has started recovering from my summer neglect. It's my favorite, so I'm pleased. I have a red one, a white one, and a pink one. The pink is so dang cute.


That salvia is great, but it's always trying to infiltrate my other containers. I have to keep an eye on it. And it grows fast! Here are two seedlings in my cyclamen pot. Be gone, intruders! (That's Swedish ivy creeping in from the left. It's kinda yellow from a nitrogen deficiency. Swedish ivy is a pretty groundcover with tiny lavender flowers, and it grows very, very fast. I cut it back frequently.)


My chives, though, is (are?) about the only plant that's truly happy with both me and the weather right now. It's going nuts!


Finally, I checked on the compost. I don't know why everyone doesn't have a compost heap. If you have an out-of-the-way spot in the landscape, compost is very easy to do, and if you do it right, you won't attract varmints. You just have to mix brown stuff with green stuff. I use dirt and dead leaves for the brown, and kitchen scraps for the green. I even compost wet paper towels!

After I took the below picture, I added more dirt (a couple of days overdue). Yes, the compost is another casualty of my summer yard avoidance.

On the left, you can see a Florida avocado plant growing from a pit we threw away. A clove of garlic had also sprouted, and in the middle are a ton of little sproutlings. I'm not sure what they are, but if they push through the soil I added today, I'll probably pull them out and plant them in pots to see what happens.


Compost keeps what we send to the landfill down, our kitchen trash isn't stinky, and we get free seedlings. I don't know what this country will do when we run out of land where we can put landfills--I know I don't want to live next to one. I've read that food waste is 30% or more of the garbage that fills our landfills, so it makes sense to try to keep it out of the trash. (And people who compost can usually pay less in trash pickup fees, by getting a smaller trash can.)

Seattle even recently passed an ordinance to charge all residents for food waste containers--like recycling containers, but for food. They'll pick the containers up each week just like with garbage and recycling. Pretty cool!